Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

How Do The Pieces Fit?

Somebody figured out Hamels will make roughly $727,272 per start over the life of his contract, figuring 33 starts per season. He will make $148,148 per game, regardless if he pitches or not. He will make $16,460 per inning, figuring 1,458 innings per season.

That is why the Phillies would trade Pence and Lee. Moving Pence and Lee, whether it’s before Tuesday’s trade deadline or in the offseason, would clear about $39 million from the 2013 payroll. But it also would create more holes on the roster. The Phillies would be in better position to address holes at third base, left field, center field and in the bullpen, if they cleared those salaries from the ledger, but they also would create holes in right field and in the rotation. The Phillies have been down that road before. They traded Lee to Seattle in Dec. 2009, then needed to trade a boatload of prospects to Houston in July 2010 for Roy Oswalt. They erred when they thought Ben Francisco could handle right field after Jayson Werth left in Dec. 2010, then sent another boatload of prospects in July 2011 for Pence.

“Ruben has his work cut out for him,” David Montgomery said Wednesday.

Truer words have never been spoken.

“We did discuss the fact, the magnitude of the contract, would it hinder us from doing some other things,” Amaro said about a conversation he had with Hamels before he agreed to the extension. “In some cases it might, but again as I’ve told him, our goal remains the same, to try to put pieces of the puzzle around these core players to make sure we’re a championship caliber club.”

I’m not sure how Amaro is going to try to make this work, but it’s going to be quite the magic show.

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30 Comments

Todd, you are getting pretty close to one of the “third rails” of American discourse:. capitalism, Baby, capitalism. If Hamels can find someone willing to pay him the equivalent of a Third World countries GDP, why wouldn’t he? And as ye olde Phillies fan Thomas Jefferson observed way back in that epic 1776 season. “But don’t forget that most men without property would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor”.

The point of trading Lee is to get his money off the books for the next 3 years. He’s under contract. Teams would be less likely to give you anything of value for a player who will be a free agent in 2 months.

Maybe it is because getting rid of Lee could possibly save the Phillies a ton of money whereas getting rid of Blanton would not even be a drop in the bucket? Maybe by getting rid of Lee this time Ruin wouldn’t be lying when he claims it will be to stock the farm system?

Listen, the pockets are mega DEEP at CBP.. So go over the luxury tax and suck it up for a year. A measley ~$3m dollar tax hit isn’t going to send the owners into bankruptcy; they make that A NIGHT with gate + concessions + parking + etc. So let’s ADD and not SUBTRACT and get a MF’in World Series next year!

Yeah, like there aren’t multiple acceptable ways to reporrt assets, iiabilities, equity, etc. It’s ridiculously easy to make the books work for or against you.
The bottom line is that we have no idea what the Phillies overall income is, escept that it is A LOT. I have to assume that pherris either doesn’t go to games or he just lacks basic observation skills.

As long as they stay under the luxury tax threshold this season (not a given), they will most certainly go over it next year. As long as it’s only one year, the penalty is minimal.
I think the league threw them a curve when they kept it static from 2011 through 2013, when it had been going up significantly every year before the recent Basic Agreement.

This from Jayson Stark today: The Phillies are still considering trading Shane Victorino before the deadline. It appears they’ll wait a few more days before making that call. One executive who spoke with GM Ruben Amaro Jr. reports, “I don’t even think Ruben knows what he’s going to do.”
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Now, I’ll turn the floor over to pherris…

Thank you, muleman, it just begs to be asked. But I get to double down in true muleman fashion which says it all – that would be Ruin Tomorrow, Jr., You and Stark ought to be able to get the name straight at least. Seeesh!

Wow. Braves made Cole Slaw out of Hamels tonite..Looks like that’s another brilliant resigning by Reuben Sandwich. And the Frillies sink deeper into the quicksand of a failed franchise.And poor Weinus Wain, he’s must be blubbering into his cheesesteak tonight. All those lofty statements about winning streaks and players returning to the roster, whoopsie. You’ve got a fat ass, 1B who can hardly walk(history), a second baseman, trying to find his stroke in late July and god, that pitching staff, phew. 14.5 back and headed in the wrong direction and not even trying to unload any of this overpriced nightmare. it’s gonna take you guys 10 years to get over this debacle.

Yo, phan52, Dave Montgomery declares Ruin “has his work cut out for him”. Is it me or does this sound like a not so ringing endorsement for Dave’s boy? I don’t believe Ruin wastes, I mean spends, the money he does without the okay of Montgomery. Regardless, if I were a suspicious person, I would say Dave has just hung out his boy to dry.

Gary Matthews said on the radio the last time Hamels pitched and pitched 124 pitches instead of the suggested 100: “Sometimes when pitchers go over 100, they have a bad outing the next time.” I wonder if anyone was surprised last night. Other than fake substances, there is no way around the body wearing out and needing time to recover. Its the Krebs Cycle people. They can’t let the pitchers go over 100

Yes, of course – the magical 100-pitch mark. As though the body has a click-counter that signals some sort of shutdown. It’s those extra 20 pitches, eh? I thought that’s what the 5 days’ rest was for.
In the words of noted philosopher Maynard G. Krebs, “We’re in trouble, Dobie.”

I hate pitch count. Look at what Nolan Ryan’s Rangers have done since he through the pitch count out the window. Look at the best pithers in the game, they all go over the magical 100 most outings. Look at such “bad” pitchers as Carlton. Robins, Kofax, etc. There is a great interview on the Phila.com site by the former Braves pitching coach about this. If any excuse for Hamels outing is possible, it is, as he said, the humidity affected his grip.

What are you talking about? Nolan Ryan is a bullshit artist. The four top starters for the Rangers(with average pitch count per start) are: Harrison(101.2), Darvish(109.1), Holland(92.87), Lewis(101.68). These guys average 101.21 pitches per start. And among them they have only 6 complete games. What does connecting the dots tell you? Have we heard the last of your Nolan Ryan shtick or what?

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